


this is the sound we make when inbetween two places

by orphan_account



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-05
Updated: 2018-11-12
Packaged: 2019-08-18 20:40:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16524263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Team TARDIS find themselves in a very familiar world full of very familiar people, with a key difference - they, their families, their friends and the extra-terrestrial places they've been do not exist. Except, of course, on a strangely accurate television show with a budget tighter than the Doctor's suspenders.





	1. this situation's becoming dire

**Author's Note:**

> lmao idk why but i really wanted to write this after successively reading dw group chat fics featuring the characters and the actors themselves

The Doctor — and the rest of the gang, she hoped, barely able to make out their outlines through the smoke, sparks and shaking about — clutched onto the TARDIS console with all her might, fingers aching from her rigid grip against the strong structure. It made all manner of unhealthy noises, leaving a lump in the Time Lord's (or Time Lady's, she hadn't quite decided which she preferred) throat, a strangely familiar pit growing ever darker in her stomach. Eventually, her old girl uncomfortably plopped down on the ground, like a toddler admitting defeat, dejected. Everything went dark, much to the  _audible_ surprise of Graham, and the Doctor's attention was drawn yet again to the empty feeling that was now carrying butterflies through her whole body. There was something so familiar to this, tugging at her chest and causing her to scrunch her face up in thought. Could it be more psychic pollen? She had sworn that the god knows how many redecorations since then had added extra protection to the time rotor, how could—

Her thoughts were cut off by a gas mask dropping from the ceiling right in front of her.

"Oh," she said solemnly. "Oh no."

"Doctor, what is it?" Yaz piped up from the corner, having long since pushed past the fear of talking, else she be cut off by another explosion. The crash seemed to have put the whole group in silent shock, even Graham.

The Doctor rolled her sleeves up with a sigh, trying to muster up confidence when all she could do was deflate every time she straightened up her posture.

"This has happened before, a long time ago. At least it feels that way..."

"So you know what to do, then? How to fix whatever's happened to the TARDIS?" The optimism in Ryan's voice was not matched by his expression, at least from what could be made out in the darkness.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Even if you said you were sure, I still had the responsibility of keeping you safe. Bringing you home every time. I promised." She hadn't felt this defeated — this  _dejected_ — since Eyebrows had sat in a diner, playing a song about a girl he couldn't remember as she stood right in front of him. "Last time, I only managed to fix her up because I got lucky. I don't think I can do it this time. She's gotten damaged over the years, it's unlikely any of her survived... that's the only reason I could save my old girl last time." She gently ran a hand across the buttons and switches, foot involuntarily pressing on the custard cream peddle. Nothing.

" _Survived?_ You mean that's it then, the TARDIS is... what, dead?" Graham's tone wasn't as harsh as it usually was when he complained. No, not complained... worried.

"Burned up from travelling to somewhere she shouldn't be."

"So where are we, then?" Yaz pulled out her phone and turned the torch on, making her way over to the Doctor (avoiding the dangling gas masks) and standing by her side. The Doctor gave her a soft smile, but it was empty. She couldn't hide the sadness when she heard that nagging at the back of her head. Pete's World.  _Rose's World._ It couldn't be anywhere else.

"Earth. But another universe. Things are different here, so we need to stay close together. Don't wander off. As great as this place may seem, it's not your home. I don't know how I'm going to get you back there, but I'll figure something out." She was rambling, she knew it but she couldn't stop. Why did the TARDIS have to bring her back? It shouldn't have even been possible; the breach between worlds had closed when she left Rose with the Meta-Crisis. Thinking about how sad she had been, left with a man identical to the one she loved but so completely different, must've shown on the Doctor's face, because before she knew it Yaz was pulling her into a hug and uttering reassurances. It was then that she decided this face liked hugs. She hadn't been too sure about it before, too caught up in travelling, but she knew now. She liked them a lot.

"We're with you, Doctor," Yaz said, finally pulling out of the hug. "Always."

"Always." Graham and Ryan nodded.

 

 


	2. with your feet in the air and your head on the ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> try this trick and spin it, yeah  
> your head will collapse if there's nothing in it  
> and you'll ask yourself: where is my mind?

_Always._

The word rang in the Doctor's ears, bouncing off the walls of her mind and leaving a bittersweet taste on her tongue. She gave a soft, thankful smile to her companions, unsure of how to tell them how she really felt about the word. What was she to say? The _truth_? 'Oh, by the way, that word rips me apart and burns me up from the inside because it's the one thing that isn't true about my relationships and friendships'? Either way it didn't matter; they were in potentially uncharted territory, and nobody wanted to stand inside a dead TARDIS all day.

"Alright then, team," she perked up, and grabbed Yaz's hand. Yaz gently squeezed hers in response. "Let's go see where she's dropped us."

The Doctor led the aforementioned team outside, Ryan and Graham following behind the two women as they opened the double doors, stepping out into the light. Her first instinct was to look up for the blimps of Pete's World, but she found herself confused and more than a little concerned when she was met with nothing but a clear blue sky. Yaz brought her back down to Earth with a pat of her shoulder, and instantly the sonic was out as she took a few brisk paces towards a nearby junction box, scanning it with an extravagant flourish of her arm.

"It's London— we-we're in London!" Graham said through relieved laughter, making exaggerated kissing motions with his hands. "We're still on Earth! In England! _London_!"

"Yeah, but remember what the Doctor said," Ryan piped up, hands in pockets, "this isn't _our_ Earth, right?"

"You're _absolutely_ right, Ryan. Now," she turned around and practically came barrelling towards him, a hand outstretched, "phone."

"No, no way, I just got this phone!"

"And we just got stranded on a parallel Earth that could be host to any number of grand schemes about to burst. I promise you, Ryan, no reformatting this time."

Ryan reluctantly passed the Doctor his phone with a heavy sigh, giving her a look as she pointed the alien-fused Sheffield steel at the screen. It emitted a low droning noise, her face scrunching up in concentration.

"Er, what're you doing, exactly?"

"Scanning for a signal and boosting it," she murmured, engrossed in the task at hand, "and some other stuff in the meantime. Technology is pretty much the same, lucky for us." The screen flashed through different stages so quickly that the flickering was barely visible, settings screens opening and closing in the blink of an eye to give way to the base OS code underneath. Frustrated groans and excited yelps flashed by almost as quickly as the display, an intense uphill battle being fought to reroute data packets and secure a stable connection.

"Well, yeah, it's Ryan's phone, Doctor," Yaz called out, puzzled. "It's the same one he had back in the... 'other world'."

"Not Ryan's phone," the Doctor grinned, gathering the group around to admire her handwork. "The internet. The technology they use on this Earth, the network cables and the analog signals and the topologies, everything you lot use to hook it all up, it's all identical! Bit primitive, but that's alright, you've got plenty of time before... nevermind."

"Doc, I don't understand the internet as it is. What exactly are you doing? Don't tell me you aliens live your lives on that bloody thing, too," Graham moaned, squinting at the screen in absolute confusion.

"The internet's just the network, it's the World Wide Web I'm after!" she continued. "All those lovely little websites. So much data all out there, so early in Earth's life. It's brilliant!" The Doctor looked up at Ryan excitedly, boldly clashing with his deeply concerned expression. "Right — Ryan. Your phone is now capable of accessing every website, every nook and cranny and restricted file, anywhere in the world."

"Even underground?"

"Let's hope we don't wind up in a position where we can test that. Never goes well.  _Now_ ," she turned to the rest of the group, "you're in a completely unknown place where you could be legally dead or somebody's pet dog for all you know. What's the first thing you look for? The keywords you search?" Her eyes shone with the light of a thousand inquisitive stars as she stared at the team, unwittingly wearing an expression of pure expectation.

"Uh... Facebook profile?" Yaz twisted her face in concentration, rubbing her temples. "No, wouldn't work; way too many Yasmin Khans out there."

"Yeah, but they don't all look like you, do they? Might take a while to search through, but surely you'd have a picture or something?" Graham said cheerfully, attempting to raise morale amongst the group. The Doctor recognised this, giving him a nod in silent thanks.

"That's it!" Ryan made a Eureka pose, looking to Graham with a spark in his eyes. "Doctor, my phone has, like, connection to all the sites, right? Not just fancy classified ones or wha'ever?"

The Doctor nodded, returning the phone to him.

"Do your thing, Ryan."

Immediately, he got to work, wielding his phone and... taking a picture of himself. An exasperated sigh escaped Graham.

"Ryan, what on Earth are you— just wh-wh-why— wh- _what_?" He stumbled over his words in frustration and impatience, failing to avoid buying his head in his hands. "A  _selfie_? Really?"

Ryan rolled his eyes, standing between the group to show them what he was doing. They all listened to his silent instructions, leaning in and watching intently.

"I'm Googling my own face. There's this thing you can do, you can search Google with just a picture and it'll bring up similar looking ones. I'm hoping it works for faces, too."

A smile slid across everybody's face as Ryan uploaded the image, quickly wiped away when the search came up completely blank.

"What? It— it didn't even mistake me for someone else!"

He stared down at the screen in disbelief; paused for a long moment as a blanket of silence fell upon the group.

"I don't exist."

Yaz pursed her lips, concerned.

"Maybe I could try?" she said, unsure of how to comfort him. And so she did. And so did Graham, with a little help. And so did the Doctor. The results were empty each time, save for a few "frankly, quite offensive" AI mixups. Team TARDIS scoured the internet for anything they could think of related to them or their family, bearing little fruit in their conquest.

"Wait! We haven't searched for the Doc yet, have we?" Graham eventually said, having long since given up on understanding technology. "You said you change faces. But I think I know you well enough to know you make quite a bit of noise. Different face, same result."

"Graham, you are brilliant!" The Doctor grinned, taking the phone and beginning to type in a jumble of letters, before frantically deleting the whole thing. "Whoops, wrong name. Got to get used to typing shorthand." She laughed nervously, carefully inputting 'the doctor' in the search box instead. Her face grew dark as she gazed upon the results. "Oh... what's this?"

The other three peered over her shoulder, squinting to read the text against the glare of the sky.

"Doctor Who?" Yaz posed it as a question, though it was more of a statement. A sudden laugh followed. "Is that what you used to look like?" She snaked her arm between Ryan and the Doctor, pointing to an image of a wild-haired old man with frowns aplenty. Also pictured was a woman with medium-length brown hair, wide-eyed and smiling. "And who's she?"

"Yes, that's me. It's the accuracy that worries me — no, scares me, even." The Doctor said in a low tone. "And I've no idea." She answered, swallowing the lump in her throat. "Guess it's only the clever face they get right, eh?"

"They?" Ryan and Graham questioned in unison.

"Whoever's done all this. Takes a lot of power and patience to peek into an alternate universe, and what do you lot go and do with the information? Make a show out of it."

"Do you know who it is that's done this?" Yaz was in full investigative mode now.

"Let's go find out, shall we?" The Doctor scanned the phone and handed it back to Ryan. "Took a note of the studio location. Time to give them a new adventure to add to their collection!"

She started off in a seemingly random direction, sonic outstretched before her as she led the team onwards. They all exchanged looks before following after her, both excited and unsettled by the new situation they found themselves in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only took me 84 years to write something more haha yikes
> 
> big ups to sootandstars who helped beta this chapter (betad? bated???brata??) !!


End file.
